Eight Boys and a Walker girl

34 | Girlfriend

Important ending!! ( and by that I basically mean that you find out what this whole Julian and Jen thing is, so I recommend you read this chapter, but DON'T SKIP TO THE END PLIZ. READ IT ALL!)

34 | Girlfriend

I get all of forty seconds of Jamie to myself before the doctors come flooding in.

Suddenly, there are white coats swarming all round the bed, voices everywhere, machine-beeps penetrating my ears. I clamp my hands over my ears, squeezing my eyes shut, and then hands are under my armpits, pulling me from my seat and to my feet.

"You need to leave, Evvie. The doctors need space," a voice murmurs in my ear, and I smell familiar cologne, and feel immediately safe in Julian's arms, but I still struggle.

"I can't leave! I need to be there- I need to be with my brother!"

"Ev, the doctors need space," he whispers in my ear, doing his best to pull me out of the door and into the corridor. "They're gonna help him. They're gonna do tests and make him okay, yeah? They need space. Evvie, breathe."

I realise that I haven't taken a breath for at least half a minute, and realise that it would probably be a good idea if I did.

I suck oxygen into my lungs, and immediately the reeling sensation in my head goes away. I collapse against Julian's chest, suddenly feeling too weak to put up a fight. I allow him to lead me out into the corridor, into the foyer, which seems to be full of white coats, all rushing for my brother's room. Watching a male doctor wheel along a trolley of various metal instruments, I have sudden images of them injecting things into him, amputating his limbs and pumping his stomach full of poisons- and then I shake it away. I have to put faith in them- I have to trust the doctors. Otherwise, I'm as good as accepting that there is nothing they can do for Jamie.

I have to believe that Jamie will be okay. I have to.

"It's okay. You're okay, Ev. Your brother's awake, they're going to do tests on him and make sure he's mentally okay, and your family is here and your Mum is going to take you home and you can rest, yeah?" Julian keeps up a steady flow of muttered words of comfort as he escorts me into the foyer, where I'm suddenly grabbed from Julian's hold I let out a disorientated shriek, and then realise that I'm now being held by Leonie, with Kiara and Elena and their parents behind her. Leonie crushes me against her chest.

"Ev, sweetheart, I heard what happened- is he really going to be okay?"

I blink against her t-shirt. "I- I have no idea- but he has to be, right? He's woken up, they can't turn off the life support now, can they?"

"Your Mum has been looking for you- I think she's in the toilets right now," Kiara says, hugging me, her own eyes bright and spilling over with tears. "She- Ev, don't make this hard for her. She must be feeling-"

Mum. I'd almost forgotten about Mum, in the midst of all this chaos. What do I say to her? How do I act, when the child that was minutes away from having his life-support cut off because of her is now alive? What do I do?

The world is spinning around me a bit, and reach out to grab something, steady myself. I fall back into a seat up against the foyer wall, gripping tightly onto the arm-rests. Recognising that I'm not exactly in a mood to be their source of information on what happened, the Laceys step back to give me space, talking amongst themselves in panicked and concerned voices. A few moments later, a male nurse comes up to me with a glass of water.

"Drink this. It'll help calm your nerves," he says. "You're the patient's sister, I'm told."

"Yeah..." my teeth clatter against the plastic cup, and I have to try as hard as I can to calm my shaking hand. "Is he going to be okay?" I blurt. "I mean- he's awake- you have to make sure he's okay, don't you? Can I see him?"